transference

In psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer of feelings and wishes experienced in earlier relationships into the relationship with the analyst.

First described by Sigmund Freud in 1895, the transference relationship is often viewed as taking a positive or negative form. In positive transference the patient is compliant or unrealistically overvalues the analyst. In negative transference the patient is defiant or dislikes the analyst. When positive, transference can be used as a means of overcoming resistance to the recall of unpleasant material but, when negative, often endangers the continuum of treatment and so is generally isolated. Freud regarded the transference relationship as an essential tool in analysis, but some subsequent schools regard it as a side effect to be countered early in treatment.